Most people who've had relatively few 'paranormal' experiences have certain ideas about reality. These ideas give them a sense of safety and sanity and reassure them that their senses are trustworthy and mankind has the power to know truth on his own terms (the scientific method, these days).

Consider this though,

if the mind has the power to delude itself so completely so as to imagine these beings, it also has the ability to delude itself that such beings do not exist.

It's conceivable that if people can hallucinate the existence of them, they can hallucinate the nonexistence of the same, and that their minds can paint over them a more preferable version of reality.

And if it's possible for an entire society to delude itself into believing in a pantheon of deities and various spirits and monsters, it's just as possible in modern times for an entire society to delude itself into believing there was never any element of truth to such ideas.

A solitary person who is in a mental crisis due to the conflict between their perceptions and reality, can be treated for their disorders, and their perceptions can be altered. but when you have an entire civilization reinforcing their perception, giving it social acceptance and exerting peer pressure both positive and negative, drowning out dissent in the cacophonous communal voice of a hundred million believers who believe to the point that they consider it knowledge of fact and reality rather than subjective belief... it's much more difficult. Imagine living on a planet of blind people and, by some mutation, being the first person to be born with working eyes. How far do you think they'd go to convince you your sight is a hallucination? They'd probably decide that your eyes were sending errant signals to the brain and have them surgically removed so you could go back to living a happy normal life.

For this reason it's often pointless to try to prove these things to someone demanding evidence; if they want it, they'll look for it, and if the truth threatens their preferred ideas about reality, they probably do not want it as much as they say they do.

I'd like to think there is the possibility of them being real but have never had a personal encounter.

the closest i have come to it is when i thought i saw death once.....turned out i woke up in the middle of the night, still drunk, not wearing my glasses......from the angle a hung up coat and can of lynx were convincing!

A lot of people say no because all spiritual accounts could be explained as psychological breakdowns or halucinations. But to me those kind of explainations are not valid because they come from people who have never felt spiritual energy.
Because they reject the idea those people will never be open to experience such things and when it does become possible for them to experience it they just reject what is happening to them. In other words, the world we know is not entirely, or may not even be, materialist.

I have to answer you on the matter of ghost, demons & angels, As far as demons and angels, yes they do exsist, Christ Jesus showed that demons did exsist, however as to the matter of ghosts, or rather the disembodied person's life force.

What does the Bible say that helps us to understand what the Soul is?

Genesis. 2:7: " And Jehovah God proceeded to form the man out of dust* from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life,* and the man came to be a living soul."
(Notice that this did not say that man was " given " a soul but that he " became " a soul, a living person.)

(The part of the Hebrew word here rendered " soul " is ne' phesh, KJ, AS, and Dy render it, " the soul " Some Translations say " the man " or " the person. "

1 Cor. 15:45: " It is even so written: " The first man Adam became a living soul.' The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. "
( So the Christian Greek Scriptures agree with the Hebrew Scriptures as to what the soul is. ) ( The Greek word here is translated " soul" is the accusative case of psy.khe'. KJ, AS, Dy, JB, NAB, and Kx, also read " soul " RS, NE, and TEV say " being "

1 Peter 3:20: " who had once been disobedient+ when the patience of God+ was waiting in Noah’s days, while the ark was being constructed,+ in which a few people, that is, eight souls, were carried safely through the water "

Can the human soul die?

Ezekiel 18:4: " Look! All the souls*—to me they belong.+ As the soul+ of the father so likewise the soul of the son—to me they belong.+ The soul that is sinning+—it itself will die.*

Ecclesiastes. 3:19: " For there is an eventuality* as respects the sons of mankind and an eventuality as respects the beast, and they have the same eventuality.+ As the one dies,* so the other dies;+ and they all have but one spirit,*+ so that there is no superiority of the man over the beast, for everything is vanity. "

( Thus both mankind and beasts are shown to have the same spirit .)

Does the conscious life continue for a person after the spirit leaves the body?

Psalms. 146:4: " His spirit* goes out,+ he goes back to his ground;+In that day his thoughts do perish.*

A lot of people say no because all spiritual accounts could be explained as psychological breakdowns or halucinations. But to me those kind of explainations are not valid because they come from people who have never felt spiritual energy.
Because they reject the idea those people will never be open to experience such things and when it does become possible for them to experience it they just reject what is happening to them. In other words, the world we know is not entirely, or may not even be, materialist.

So one of your questions would be like: Is there a spirit part of man that survives the death of the body?

Ezekiel: 18:4: " Tho Soul that is sinning---it itsself will die. " (RS, NE, KJ, and Dy; note: the capitol Letters are Bible Versions) all render the Hebrew word ne' phesh in this verse as " Soul, " thus saying that it is the soul that dies. Some translations that render ne' phesh as " soul " in other passages use the expression " the man " or " the one " in this verse. So, the ne' phesh , the soul, is the person, not an immaterial part of him that survives when his body dies.

Psalms. 146:4: " His spirit* goes out,+ he goes back to his ground;+In that day his thoughts do perish. " (The Hebrew word here is translated " spirit " is a derivative of ru' ach. Some translators render it " breath." When that ru' ach , or active life-force, leaves the body, the persons thoughts perish; they do not continue in another realm.)

Ecclesiastes. 9:5: " For the living are conscious that they will die;*+ but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all,*+ neither do they anymore have wages, because the remembrance of them has been forgotten." So as we read, those who are conscious, or living, know that they will eventually die, But the dead are not conscious, or able to think or devise, or have hatred, or plan or do anything. when they are dead.

I actually have a funny Ouija board story. I was staying over this chicks house and she was into tarot cards and a whole slew of metaphysical nonse- err, metaphysics. I ripped open her Ouija piece and put a small speaker magnet in it and I bought a miniature RC car from radioshack and gutted it as well and attached it beneath the table.

I actually have a funny Ouija board story. I was staying over this chicks house and she was into tarot cards and a whole slew of metaphysical nonse- err, metaphysics. I ripped open her Ouija piece and put a small speaker magnet in it and I bought a miniature RC car from radioshack and gutted it as well and attached it beneath the table.

I'm pretty sure they say they experienced something as well...

LMFAOOOO what'd you have it spell out?!?! You're on ehell of an evil genius.

Isn't tarot cards almost as credible as horoscopes? (no offence to tarot readers)

LMFAOOOO what'd you have it spell out?!?! You're on ehell of an evil genius.

Isn't tarot cards almost as credible as horoscopes? (no offence to tarot readers)

Nothing, it just scooted the ouji piece a little bit on the board. I just taped the RC to a ruler and the ruler under the table. It doesn't take much to impress people that already are willing to fool themselves.

LMFAOOOO what'd you have it spell out?!?! You're on ehell of an evil genius.

Isn't tarot cards almost as credible as horoscopes? (no offence to tarot readers)

Nothing, it just scooted the ouji piece a little bit on the board. I just taped the RC to a ruler and the ruler under the table. It doesn't take much to impress people that already are willing to fool themselves.

I think ghosts are real, I'm part of a Paranormal Society in Iowa and it turns out that I'm sensitive/empathetic to them, as I found out twice on investigations. I think a lot of "paranormal" anomalies are caused by the human mind though, if you believe in them they are there and will be able to interact with you.